“Goodnight, Heartling,” I whispered to the empty room, and fell on the bed again, naked, satisfied, no longer distracted.
The next day,when I entered the eating hall for breakfast, I thought my legs were going to give out from how heavy the sense of embarrassment was when his eyes locked on mine.
March smiled just a little, then hid his lips behind his teacup. Meanwhile my knees were shaking, and I had no choice but to go sit right next to him because that wasmyplace, and the only empty chair in the room.
“How are we feeling this fine morning?” March said under his breath when I said my good mornings. My cheeks had just started to settle a little bit when they flared up again.
“Fine.”
“Distracted?”
Holy Hour, something must have been wrong with me, because he said that word and my memories took me back to last night and now my knees were shaking for an entirely different reason. My thighs clenched and my heart hammered. I was so turned on so suddenly it shocked me.
And all he’d done wassay a word!
The knife I was about to use to spread my jam on a piece of toast shook in my fist. “Iwillstab you.”
A chuckle—this one he hid with his hand. “Promises, promises,” he said—and why in the world was Ismiling?
“It was a simple question, Ora,” he said. “I don’t want you stressed out, that’s all.”
I threw him a look. “Then maybe you should get on your knees.”
Could have been someone else taking control of my body, but those words left my lips all the same.
March raised his brows, and he didn’t laugh or smile at all. In fact, that same dark look fell over him as the nightbefore, and he said, “What a coincidence. That’s my favorite thing to do.” He leaned a little closer. “As soon as night falls, I’ll be kneeling by your bed to do my worshipping.”
Embarrassed? Goodness, no.
Now I was seconds away from grabbing his hand and guiding him back to my bedroom.
And again—all he did wastalk.
That mouth on him. The look in his eyes. The way he’d known exactly what to do to me, how to touch me, how to drive me over the brink.
It was the memories, I figured. Everything we’d done last night was still very vivid in my head, andthatwas the reason why I was so flustered.
Then…
“Bad dreams?”
Silas, who sat across from me at the table, was looking right at me.
I swallowed hard. Lowered my eyes to the table and proceeded to pretend like I was hungry and in need of food. Prepared to speak, when…
“On the contrary. She was just telling me about how…intensethey were.”
March.
March and his perfect mouth and that awful, awful grin.
Silas said nothing. I didn’t raise my eyes from the table again until breakfast was over.
At dinner,half the Hands ate as fast as they could, then rushed back to their rooms to rest, and I couldn’t blame them. Asha and Hector had been especially strict with ustoday. We’d started one-on-one combat and it had been harder than I’d thought to use actual weapons and to actively trynotto hurt whoever I sparred with while also moving and landing as many hits as Asha required to be satisfied.
My muscles screamed, too, but I still had a meeting to attend with Master Talik, so when I stood up to leave, I told Calren the same thing others had told him—I’m too tired and I want to go lie down.
March looked at me skeptically as I went, and I feared he’d say he was coming with for a moment, but he didn’t. I’d spent the whole day avoiding his eyes, and luckily Asha hadn’t paired us to spar together, but I had to get myself under control when it came to him. I should be able to behave like a normal person even when I was horny, damn it.
